Lead Fall

In previous weeks my wife and I have been able to climb in Rock Canyon nearly every Saturday. However today despite our best hopes we couldn't because of the rain. We had wanted to take some friends of ours who happened to be in town, but ended up climbing at the gym in Provo instead. It's called the Quarry. We love climbing there because it happens to be the place my wife and I met.

My blog this week however won't be from today, but from Thursday morning. I woke up early enough to make it to the Quarry at about 6 a.m. They open early like this twice a week for people who want to go before work/school. A friend of mine and I frequently meet there early to get some lead climbing in. Lead climbing is a type of climbing which involves starting a route without a rope already set at the top. The name implies that the leader climbs the route first, and then the rest of the group can climb more easily because the rope has already been run through anchors at the top of the climb. If you slip while climbing a "top rope" setup, you will barely fall at all because the rope is always anchored above you and catches you almost immediately. On a lead climb however, the difference is that you have to set anchors along the wall while climbing. This means that many times during the climb, you may actually be a few feet above the last anchor. If you slip, you'll fall double the distance from you to the anchor below you, plus a few extra feet usually because of stretch in the rope.

Given that understanding of how lead climbing works, I have done it frequently and it always makes me a bit nervous. If I sense that I won't be able to make a part of the climb without taking a lead fall, I'll stop and take a rest. I also try to climb routes that are much easier than what I would be willing to do on a "top rope" climb. This strategy has worked for a long time. I've taken small falls before but nothing worth telling about. On Thursday morning however, my last climb of the day, I found myself in a spot where the places I was holding on to the wall with my hands and feet weren't the easiest to hold onto. I was worn out from having done several lead climbs. My last anchor was a few feet below me. My next anchor (or "quickdraw") was right about at eye level. I couldn't hold on well enough to try to climb back down, to try to clip into my next quickdraw, or to continue the climb. I only held on for a moment, long enough to think, "Well, here it goes. My first huge lead fall." In addition to being a few feet above the anchor and the stretch in the rope, my friend had also left quite a bit of slack in the rope because he knew I was close to the next point I needed to clip in. He's also used to the fact that I don't take falls, because if I sense one coming I take a rest to avoid it. All of these factors combined, I was in the air for quite a long time. Long enough to think, "I'm ok. The rope is going to catch me any second now." As the rope caught me, my friend came well up off the ground, again adding to the total distance I fell. Having been close to the top when I started the fall, I can estimate that the total distance of the fall was about 25 feet. Surprisingly it didn't scare me at all. I definitely felt a bit of an adrenaline rush, and truth be told I had a huge smile on my face. Both of us laughed for a while.

What did I learn? Taking a lead fall isn't so bad. It's actually sort of fun!

So what? I've been very careful for a very long time to avoid taking a lead fall, all to discover after having gotten my first one over with that I don't need to try so hard to avoid them anymore.

Now what? I'll be able to start pushing myself harder, especially at lead climbing, so that I can improve my climbing abilities, climb with more confidence, and take fewer breaks.

Obviously the picture isn't from when we were climbing in the gym on Thursday. It's me lead climbing a route with my wife a few weeks ago.

Green Monster

Saturday my wife and I again hiked up into the canyon with all our gear, intent on climbing the Green Monster for the third week in a row. Today we had more time to play with, so we planned on waiting until it was open even if that meant waiting a while. Sure enough, there was a group on it when we arrived, but we still had quite a hike up a steep trail with a lot of gear before we could set up the route. You have to rappel down to this climb because the base of the climb is about 30 up from the trail on a ledge. We worked our way very slowly up the steep trail. Just as we arrived at the top of the climb, one of the other group's climbers was finishing his route. We asked how much longer they would be on it, and he said that he happened to be their last climber.

They finished up and pulled their rope off the route. My wife and I both scrambled to the top of the climb and clipped ourselves into a bolt at the top of the ledge. We were now standing about 80 feet up from the base of the climb. I set up the rope for the rappel, but the bolts we were rappelling from were about 5 feet horizontally away from us, meaning we'd have to awkwardly work our way over to the bolts before putting weight on the ropes. I made my wife go first so I could make sure she was set up properly (I've done more rappelling than she has).

Both of us were feeling a bit nervous at this point. We decided to say a prayer. I said one with my eyes opened, praying that everything would be ok and that we would be protected. We both suddenly felt calm, that everything would be ok. My wife slowly lowered herself onto the ropes, and then rappelled to the base without any trouble. I then reached over and grabbed the ropes and rappelled to the bottom as well. I probably won't do that part again, and least not with my wife up there with me, just because you have to get pretty much onto the 80 foot ledge before you have something to clip into.

We then had an excellent day of climbing, finally climbing the route we had been wanting to for a couple weeks, and a different route nearby.

What I learned: First of all, two people on a sketchy rappel, especially when one of them is your wife, isn't the best idea. Second, Heavenly Father is watching over us and protecting us. Prayer is powerful and can bring that feeling of comfort that everything will be ok.

So what?: We had a great time doing this climb after doing the rappel that made us so nervous. It was definitely worth it, and we were reminded of Heavenly Father's love for us.

Now what?: Like I said, I probably won't do that rappel again anytime soon. At least not with my wife up there with me. We can finally check this route off our to do list. In the future if we ever get nervous climbing, we will definitely remember the power of prayer.

Tinker Toys

Today, my wife and I woke up early to hike up Rock Canyon. We've been busy all week long with typical work and school responsibilities. We look forward to chances that we have to do fun adventures together, especially ones that involve lots of gear and climbing tall things. We had limited time and had come up the canyon with only one goal, to climb the Green Monster. We've made this hike a couple of times already and always find the Green Monster occupied when we get there. We woke up extra early today in the hopes that we might beat the crowd. Unfortunately, we got there just as a group of about 8 people were setting up to climb it. Finding out that it would be occupied again frustrated both of us, and we both had bad attitudes the rest of the time we were climbing today.

We didn't have enough time to go and find anything else on our to-do list, so we had to make due with a nearby wall, called Tinker Toys. I lead one of the routes, but there were few places to clip in as I climbed, making it a rather dangerous lead climb. In a couple of places I was pretty nervous about taking a long fall. I managed to make it to the top without falling. My wife wanted to lead it as well, but I talked her out of it because of how dangerous of a lead climb this was compared to most lead climbs we do. We climbed a couple different routes before we had to start heading back.

What I learned: Wake up much earlier than you think you need to if you'd like to find the wall that you want to climb unoccupied when you get there. Also, don't get frustrated when things don't go your way, that way you can enjoy plan B for what it is, despite not getting to do plan A.

So what?: Perhaps climbing isn't the most important thing in the world to most of you, but to me and my wife it is our favorite activity together. It also happens to be the way we met. As opposed to the rest of the week, which involves being apart at our different jobs or in different classes, climbing together is just pure fun and adventure together.

Now what?: Next Saturday I'm sure we'll be up in the canyon again, but hopefully this time with more hours to play with, a better attitude, and perhaps even earlier so that the wall we want to climb on isn't taken again.